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Wednesday, May 3, 2017

The One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr

It's Wednesday, readers! The week is already halfway over. Today I'm part of the official blog tour for Emily Barr's fab YA debut, The One Memory of Flora Banks! Do note there is a tour wide giveaway on this one, so be sure to read through for the Rafflecopter at the end.

Flora Banks hasn't been able to make new memories since she was ten. Now, at seventeen, she leaves herself notes and messages to bring her up to speed each day and remind her of what's happened.But when Flora kisses her best friend's boyfriend, Drake, at his going away party, she wakes the next day to find that she can recall every detail. As days pass, the kiss, and Drake, remain fresh on her mind. Certain that the first new memory she's made in seven years must mean something, she sets off to find Drake, traveling a road unknown and remaining steadfast in her mission. But her travels aren't easy and her discoveries aren't what she expected.

I loved the style and voice of Emily Barr's debut. Flora shines through as her day to day story, stunted by her lack of memories and reminders to herself, progresses. It's really what makes the book unique and a bit of a stand out, that voice and style. Of course Flora's story would be interesting even without it, but I think it makes it much more effective (always), being inside Flora's mind and thoughts. It gives the reader a sense of what she's going through and makes it easier to empathize with her.

From the start, her story is strange. Because she's afraid she'll forget Drake and the kiss, she of course writes herself a note - which is discovered by her friend Paige. Her parents leave town, under the impression that Paige, the now former friend, will be there to help Flora and Flora does nothing to correct their assumption (in part because she's forgotten already). So Flora is on her own for the first time. And decides the best course of action - the only course of action - is to find Drake. In Svalbard.

And what an adventure it is! Traveling to and trekking around Norway in search of her one true love, she meets and befriends a whole group of people who know nothing about her issue. And it's that that makes it easier for her to begin to come into her own.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I started The One Memory of Flora Banks. It was compared to Memento, for obvious reasons, but my dark mind kept trying to imagine what the twist would be (and how dark it would be). And there are a few massive twists in the book - some I sort of saw coming and some I did not. Traveling with Flora as companion in her quest without any real notion of what was to come certainly made the book more of an adventure and definitely made it a whole lot of fun!

Huge thanks to the good folks at Penguin for setting up the tour and providing a copy for review. And as mentioned above, there is a tour wide giveaway! Enter via the Rafflecopter below, and good luck!